2012—A YEAR OF VICTORIES!
And how you can help extend this success, gear up for the major new battles of 2013, and build the nuclear-free, carbon-free future our nation and planet deserve…
And how you can help extend this success, gear up for the major new battles of 2013, and build the nuclear-free, carbon-free future our nation and planet deserve…
November 20, 2012
Dear Friends,
Sometimes it's important to step back and reflect on our movement's accomplishments.... Think about how far we've come this year:
*The license for the proposed Calvert Cliffs-3 reactor was denied by the NRC! We couldn’t afford a lawyer so we did this legal intervention ourselves and won a stunning victory. We’re now defending that victory before the NRC Commissioners. We’re confident we’ll win there too.
*The NRC was forced to stop issuing licenses for new reactors and license renewals for the next two years. This was because of a lawsuit brought by our allies at NRDC, BREDL, and others. But two years isn’t enough to fix the problems caused by the NRC’s failed “waste confidence” rule. In fact, we have no confidence in our radioactive waste policy: the NRC should just make the licensing moratorium permanent.
*In October, Wisconsin’s Kewaunee reactor announced its permanent shutdown at the end of the year. Aging reactors can’t compete with the alternatives. The Exelon Corporation announced a few days later that it may close New Jersey’s Oyster Creek reactor before its scheduled 2019 date because of competition from “cheap renewables” and possible new capital costs to address post-Fukushima safety issues. Oyster Creek and other Fukushima-clone reactors (think Vermont Yankee, Pilgrim, Dresden, and more) are on their last legs. It’s our job to push these dangerous aging reactors, along with time bombs like San Onofre, Crystal River and Indian Point, over the edge.
*For the first time since 2010, President Obama’s budget this year did not include any new money for taxpayer loans for new reactors. And the President did not even mention nuclear power during his State of the Union speech, nor in any of the election debates (unlike his opponent). Nor has the $8.3 Billion taxpayer loan for the new Vogtle reactors, first announced in February 2010, gone out the door. This follows the successful efforts of NIRS and other DC-based groups over the past four years (and the 250,000+ e-mails and thousands of phone calls you have done) to block any and every effort to increase taxpayer support for new reactors.
With your help, we will build on these successes and take on the new challenges that face us. We expect a pitched battle on radioactive waste issues in the next Congress. We will not yield: we will not accept a plan for “consolidated interim” storage that would send lethally-radioactive waste across our highways and railways to a “temporary” storage parking lot somewhere. With your support, a Mobile Chernobyl is not going to happen.
We’re also gearing up, with our colleagues in Washington and at the American Clean Energy Agenda, to stop any new nuclear subsidies and begin taking back some of the existing ones, as well as to block any effort to include nuclear power in a “clean energy standard” or “all of the above” energy approach. (by the way, don’t forget to sign the American Clean Energy Agenda petition here--a lot of folks haven't yet…). And we’re planning to take on the right-wing Koch Brothers-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, which says it’s going to try to roll back state renewable energy standards in 2013. With your help, we can beat them.
2013 will be NIRS’ 35th anniversary as the networking, organizing and mobilization arm of the anti-nuclear movement. To mark that anniversary, we are embarking on a major capacity-building campaign: we aim to quadruple our e-mail list, add new mobile communication components, reach and engage young people more effectively, and much more.
We ask for your support now to help us meet these goals. There are several ways you can help—and help build our movement for a necessary nuclear-free, carbon-free future.
*Please contribute as generously as you can, right now, here. Your tax-deductible donations are absolutely essential to meeting our expenses. Did you know that nearly 60% of non-profit organizations this year, including NIRS, have raised less money than in 2011—yet all of our costs keep rising? Please help make up that difference now.
*Not many of us, including NIRS staff, can give as much as we’d like—we’re not millionaires and we know you aren’t either! But you can increase your impact by becoming a valued NIRS fundraiser. It’s easy: just set up your own fundraising page on our Razoo donation page here, and then ask your friends, colleagues, social networking contacts, and whoever else you know, to make a tax-deductible donation to NIRS as well. If you need any help doing this, let us know!
As an incentive, everyone who raises $750 or more for NIRS by March 31, 2013 will receive 
a free copy of the beautiful book produced by our colleagues at WISE, Radiating Posters, which provides a history of the global anti-nuclear movement through the amazing posters it has produced. Note: you don’t need to wait until March to receive your book; we’ll send it as soon as the $750 goal is reached!
*Hold a house party for NIRS! This is pretty easy as well; I’ve done several at my own house. You invite some people over, have some refreshments, talk strategy for ending the nuclear age—or just have fun, and raise some money for NIRS. But we’re not asking you to do that just yet. We’re planning to have a couple dozen such parties occurring simultaneously. We’re going to have an extra incentive—maybe a conference or Skype call with NIRS staff and experts, a webinar, a film, or another idea to tie it all together. We’ll be sending out a questionnaire soon to get your thoughts on what we can offer that would work best for you. What we’d like to know now is, are you willing to host such an event in tandem with many others across the country? If so, please send a quick e-mail to us atnirsnet@nirs.org with your name, city and state. We will get back to you.
You won’t be getting a snail mail fundraising letter from us this holiday season. We’re saving paper, saving costs: but this is an experiment. Normally we raise about $25,000 from our year-end mailing—and we still need to raise at least that much! That’s more than we have ever raised online in six weeks before, but we need to do it now. So if you appreciate our work, if you want more victories in 2013, please donate as generously as possible right now, either online or by sending a check to NIRS, 6930 Carroll Avenue, #340, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Or you can just phone in your donation to 301-270-6477.
Thank you so much.
For a nuclear-free, carbon-free future,
a free copy of the beautiful book produced by our colleagues at WISE, Radiating Posters, which provides a history of the global anti-nuclear movement through the amazing posters it has produced. Note: you don’t need to wait until March to receive your book; we’ll send it as soon as the $750 goal is reached!*Hold a house party for NIRS! This is pretty easy as well; I’ve done several at my own house. You invite some people over, have some refreshments, talk strategy for ending the nuclear age—or just have fun, and raise some money for NIRS. But we’re not asking you to do that just yet. We’re planning to have a couple dozen such parties occurring simultaneously. We’re going to have an extra incentive—maybe a conference or Skype call with NIRS staff and experts, a webinar, a film, or another idea to tie it all together. We’ll be sending out a questionnaire soon to get your thoughts on what we can offer that would work best for you. What we’d like to know now is, are you willing to host such an event in tandem with many others across the country? If so, please send a quick e-mail to us atnirsnet@nirs.org with your name, city and state. We will get back to you.
You won’t be getting a snail mail fundraising letter from us this holiday season. We’re saving paper, saving costs: but this is an experiment. Normally we raise about $25,000 from our year-end mailing—and we still need to raise at least that much! That’s more than we have ever raised online in six weeks before, but we need to do it now. So if you appreciate our work, if you want more victories in 2013, please donate as generously as possible right now, either online or by sending a check to NIRS, 6930 Carroll Avenue, #340, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Or you can just phone in your donation to 301-270-6477.Thank you so much.
For a nuclear-free, carbon-free future,
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
www.nirs.org
nirsnet@nirs.org
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
www.nirs.org
nirsnet@nirs.org
Stay Informed:
NIRS on the web (stay up-to-date with the Nuclear Newsreel section on the front page, featuring the day's most interesting news on nuclear power and other energy issues): http://www.nirs.org
NIRS on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nuclear-Information-and-Resource-Service/26490791479?sk=wall&filter=12
http://www.facebook.com/nonukesnirs
http://www.causes.com/causes/49098-no-nukes-nuclear-information-and-resource-service
NIRS on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/nirsnet
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nuclear-Information-and-Resource-Service/26490791479?sk=wall&filter=12
http://www.facebook.com/nonukesnirs
http://www.causes.com/causes/49098-no-nukes-nuclear-information-and-resource-service
NIRS on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/nirsnet
Please note: NIRS never sells, rents, trades, or otherwise makes our e-mail lists available to other organizations or individuals for any reason. If you would like to unsubscribe to NIRS list, click here to unsubscribe.
No comments:
Post a Comment